Analysis of pharmacists’ use of Twitter

The use of online social networks has grown rapidly in the past decade, as social media have become a vital interaction venue in our personal and professional lives.1 Despite Facebook’s ascension to the most popular social medium, Twitter has gained a niche for subject-specific communications.2,3 From detecting influenza outbreaks to exploring the misuse of antibiotics, Twitter has been used to gain insight into health information dissemination and communication.4,5 Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a microblogging online platform with which users can post messages (“tweets”) no longer than 140 characters that art accessible by any Twitter user as well as users who specifically “follow” them. Followers can “retweet” messages that they believe are noteworthy (similar to forwarding an e-mail) or reply (“@user”) to tweets, creating a relatively public online conversation. Users can also exchange private messages. Lists can be created to gather a “tweet...